DNS operations are a critical part of Internet infrastructure, yet they are largely closed to researchers today, with no formal path to fielding new technology or even observing current status. These challenges are particularly accurate for root nameservers and important top-level domains.
As a result, evolution is slow and operational information is very limited. Innovation is limited to a very few organizations, and often superseded by commercial interests or operational limitations.
We are working to investigate new approaches to DNS operations, to investigate how DNS operations can safely interact with researchers, and developing approaches for privacy-preserving data analysis and controlled testing. Requirements of this research are protecting the privacy of DNS users and the integrity of operational systems, while allowing meaningful research.
The Research Root is current supported with internal funding through the USC/ISI New Research Initiatives Council (link is ISI internal) and USC/ITS, started June 2012.
This research is done in cooperation with USC/ITS (Ilee Rhimes, CIO), and USC/ISI's Information Processing Center (Richard Nelson, director).
(listed alphabetically)
(In reverse chronological order.)
For related publications, please see the ANT publications web page.
See the see the ANT distribution web page. We are developing DNS anonymization software.
